Foxton Little Theatre to stage funny farce Death By Golf

Ashley (Calle Brooks), her grandpa (Carl Terry), the convict (Aaron Rolls) and the attorney (Angela Jones) on stage during a rehearsal at Foxton Little Theatre for Death By Golf.

Foxton does funny, so it’s no surprise that Foxton Little Theatre has plumped for another comedy.

Comedies have always gone down well in the small Horowhenua town, so when the local theatre committee was given a shortlist of options for their end-of-year production, it made sense to go with the formula that worked.

Director Marie Fearon said the committee read the script to the uproarious farce Death By Golf and were sold.

“Comedies work in Foxton. Everyone prefers a laugh,” she said. Death By Golf comes hot on the heels of a sell-out season for the The Pink Hammer, another show that tickled the ribs.

Fearon said the play should resonate with golfers, and they had borrowed trophies from the Foxton Golf Club down the road as props. It helped that one of the cast members, Carl Terry, was a keen golfer and was able to bring along his own props.

With less than three weeks to go before opening night of Death By Golf, both cast and crew were working hard to be ready. It was now a case of “scripts down”.

There will be prompts during rehearsals, which are held three nights a week, but there will be no such safety net once opening night arrives.

Marie Fearon is the director of Death By Golf, on stage soon at Foxton Little Theatre.

Fearon first became involved with the theatre more than 25 years ago, and in that time has appeared on stage herself just twice. They were both very small cameo roles - once as a nurse with a non-speaking part, while the other role had just one small speaking part before her character was killed off seconds later.

But that’s okay. She preferred to be involved behind the scenes.

“I’m bossy. I like telling people what to do,” she said.

Death By Golf centres around an escaped convict (Aaron Rolls), an anxious bride (Calle Brooks), a scheming new husband and a suspicious attorney (Angela Jones), who all converge on Grandpa’s house… it doesn’t take him long to realise he has to reschedule his golf game.

Grandpa and his granddaughter are in for very large, unexpected inheritance, but where is the birth certificate that will prove their entitlement?

And isn’t there an uncanny resemblance between the escaped convict and the recent bridegroom... what is that about?

While Death by Golf has just a cast of four - actors Calle Brooks, Angela Jones, Aaron Rolls, and Terry - there was a large number of crew members required to make the community production happen, including those involved at in front-of-house work, publicity, set management and preparing meals.

Working bees were held to set the stage.

Death by Golf opens on Friday, November 17 and will have performances on Friday and Saturday nights for three consecutive weeks. The theatre does meals, too. Bookings are essential and are open at Foxton Property Brokers - phone 06 363 0022.

Further details are available from Marie Fearon; call 027 368 8077 or email mariefearon@xtra.co.nz.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.